Portuguese media have expressed concerns about Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes’ fitness after he was suspended for the stalemate between Portugal and Hungary. Cristiano Ronaldo set a new milestone in World Cup qualifying, but the Group F front-runner’s hopes of securing a spot in next year’s tournament with just two games remaining were thwarted when Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai scored an equalizer in stoppage time in a 2-2 deadlock.
Ronaldo had scored twice and established himself as the most prolific scorer in World Cup qualifiers with 41 goals, more than Guatemalan forward Carlos Ruiz, who scored 39 goals in qualifying during his career. But while Ronaldo was expected to achieve new heights, it was a disappointing night for Fernandes, who received a yellow card and was ruled out of Portugal’s penultimate qualifier against Ireland in Dublin. He was then sent off in the 62nd minute.
Local media were unimpressed with Fernandes’ performance, with manager Renasheka reporting ahead of United’s game against Liverpool on Sunday that he, along with Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva, was showing signs of “physical fatigue”, something that manager Ruben Amorim was far from happy about.
Furthermore, A Bola gave him a rating of 6/10 and said that he had minimal impact on the case.
They observed that “he hit the post once in the second half, but that was probably the only time he was able to find space in the central passage. For this reason he often appeared close to the line, especially on the left flank, but without gaining any influence.”
With the exception of Ronaldo, who secured 8/10, the rest of the team received ratings ranging from 5 to 7.
Fernandes believed Portugal were to blame for the game becoming too open after his substitution.
Afterwards he said: “We came into their game in the last 30 minutes with a transition game and opened up the field wide. We controlled the game well and pushed them back and created chances.”
“Suddenly we started to enter a transitional game that was not good for us. Our strength is to hold the ball and push teams back.
“Even if it’s hard to find goals like we did against Ireland, it’s always better to keep the ball and create our own chances than to play a game of spreading the field and attacking transitions, and that ended up working to their advantage.”
“Hungary are very strong on set-pieces, transitions and second balls. When they have space they can create danger and that happened. We have to give credit to them too.”
Despite the disappointment, qualification should be easy for Portugal, who maintain a five-point advantage over second-placed Hungary with two games remaining.
